SOPA Articles

SOPA has already been forgotten, though it was the last threat against your privacy, launched by the government against the American people. In November they launched another assault, called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. At the last minute an amendment was added that expanded the powers far beyond cyber protection. But then again, the crooks in Washington are always perpetrating such abuses on the American people.

CISPA paves the way for the U.S. government and private business to cooperate on security threats, as well as on suspicions of child pornography. It shields private companies from law suits for sharing clients’ private information and correspondence, with the U.S. government, when it is for the sake of national security or on suspicion of child pornography.

As ACTA treaty, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, gains more and more government support, the internet world is revolting against it. This agreement is set to establish a new ruling body that would be responsible for targeting online piracy and was drafted/signed by a variety of countries.

As of October 1, 2011 there have been 31 various countries that have signed the agreement including the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, and many others. Those supporting the agreement state that it is necessitated due to the massive increase in the trade and production of counterfeit goods and copyrighted content.

With SOPA and PIPA now out of the way (hopefully) the attention of the Internet protesting masses have turned towards this Act but why? Here we will examine the reasons behind the negativity against ACTA and also see if the protesting is justified or if it is merely due to thousands of uninformed individuals “jumping the protest band wagon”.

On the 18th of January 2012 the world banded together in an effort to show their opposition to two acts being proposed in the United States congress. These acts, as you may already know, are the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act and aim at culling the rampant online piracy that is costing the music industry millions.

In the protest on the 18th several of the largest websites in the world blacked out to show their opposition to SOPA and PIPA and also encourage others (especially Americans) to let congress and their representatives know that they disapprove of these acts. Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, Flickr as well as others did a blackout and the results were astounding. Thousands of people flooded the Whitehouse and their representatives with phone calls, emails, and more protesting. After all was said and done, those opposing SOPA and PIPA thought that they had won….but they were wrong.

One of the strongest and loudest protesters of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PIPA Act has been Wikipedia. In an attempt to further demonstrate their disdain for these online piracy acts Wikipedia is staging a new protest: an online blackout.

The Wikipedia blackout will be in effect on Wednesday the 18th and will last all day. The blackout will be on the English version of Wikipedia however Wikipedia states that the other languages will also put up protest banners and may follow suit in order to further spread the word about SOPA and PIPA.

Wikipedia’s co-founder Jimmy Wales Tweeted the other day that the “emerging consensus of the community seems to be for a global blackout of English Wikipedia”. Wikipedia had apparently considered a softer approach to the blackout but apparently a full blackout was decided on.

For those who don’t know why Wikipedia is protesting SOPA and PIPA you can read more here however a short overview is that SOPA and PIPA take drastic and unnecessary measures in an attempt to stomp out online piracy.

The continued outrage for SOPA was only fueled when protesters saw multiple companies not only complying with the bill but actually listing their support for it. These companies are not thinking about how devastating this act will be if it passes, they are not sympathetic to the fact that this act will enable the government and other private parties the ability to bypass the due process and effectively decimate any site accused of copyright infringement. SOPA will forever change how you use the Internet and it will have lasting effects. Fortunately a lot of important companies are against SOPA: AOL, eBay(+PayPal), Facebook, Google, GoDaddy, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Reddit, Torrentfreak, Tumblr, Twitter, TechCrunch, ESET, 4chan, HostGator, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Kaspersky, Craiglist and The Huffington Post.

Many people have considered the recent acts by the United States government not only illegal, but also a clear example of internet censorship. One act that has been proposed, dubbed SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), had an extensive list of “can’t do’s” that even encompassed linking to a website that sold counterfeit materials!

SOPA is a brash and ineffective attempt to stop piracy and the end result would only lead to significant penalties to innocent individuals who did nothing wrong. The true pirates could easily escape and create new, and much more elaborate, methods of piracy which would allow them to easily circumvent the harsh rules set forth by SOPA.

Here recently there has been an uproar from consumers and website owners at the hypocritical actions taken by the US against certain websites by the effort known as Operation In Our Sites. This effort shuts down commercial websites that are selling or distributing counterfeit material and has led to the seizure of more than a hundred and thirty domains, ars technica reports.

Unfortunately websites now have to fear more than the US government as one luxury goods maker has proven here recently. Chanel, a long standing fashion designer that utilizes the double C logo to trademark their goods, has been fighting counterfeit handbags and other goods for a long time however now they have taken swift action against the online sale of these counterfeit goods.